Mackenna Janz and Allison Winkel, alternating performances as AnnieThe Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's Annie feels like a show I've never seen before, even though I'd seen it many times prior to Thursday night's performance. While the musical's characters are portrayed in familiar ways, director Patrick Stinson's work seems new, mostly because of designer Kenneth Verdugo's sets. As odd as that sounds - the idea that a set could change the feel of an entire show - it's true, because the design not only affects the look of the production, but also how the stage space is used, and what elements are highlighted as a result.

The Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's The Drowsy ChaperoneThe Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's The Drowsy Chaperone is fantastically fun. Of course, it helps that the book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar, and the music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison, are filled with amusing lines, scenarios, and situations. It also helps that this summer's Showboat cast is so talented, appearing in one impressive production after another, including Thursday night's performance.

Nicole Ferguson and Brian Cowing in High FidelityThere is so much energy in the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's High Fidelity that I practically had to hold myself down in my seat throughout Thursday night's performance to avoid jumping up and dancing along with the actors. Not only are the book by David Lindsay-Abaire, lyrics by Amanda Green, and music by Tom Kitt great fun, but director Patrick Stinson and his cast seem to have a rocking good time staging it.

The Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's NunsenseThe Clinton Area Showboat Theatre kicks off its summer season with two similarly themed shows running in repertory, and I caught a double-feature of Nunsense and Altar Boyz on Saturday - a marathon day of Catholic humor. The pairing is a good choice, with each offering a self-aware musical featuring jokes related to Catholicism. And while the scripts push the boundaries of Christian decency, neither crosses over into completely irreverent territory, each maintaining a respect for religious roots and having fun with the shows' core faith, rather than at its expense.

members of the It's a Wonderful Life: A live Radio Play children's choirThe Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's production of It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play has several things going for it. One, it's nostalgically familiar - who hasn't seen the It's a Wonderful Life movie at least once? Two, it's a holiday show for an audience that's more than likely in a Christmas spirit, and already jolly when sitting down to watch the play. And three, it's short, running one hour without an intermission. However, there's one major element missing from the Showboat's show that would make it really good: melodrama.

If not for Patrick Stinson's direction and the cast's performances (Cole Rauch's and Tanya Smith's in particular) adding an effectively creepy air, the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's Dracula would be a rather dull affair. Playwright Crane Johnson, it seems, would much rather describe vampiric events in his script than write so that anyone directing the play might show them. It's not nearly as frightening, after all, to hear someone tell of bodies found or women bitten in the neck as it is to see these events happen before your very eyes.

 

Nicole Horton and Michael Detmer in Sunday in the Park with GeorgeThere's one thing that appears missing from Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's Sunday in the Park with George: adequate rehearsal time. Actually, there are a number of things partially absent in this offering - polished performances, accurate notes, emotion - but they all stem from what seems to have been not enough time to adequately prepare the piece. To quote lyrics from the show, "art isn't easy," but it's certainly easier than prepping a Stephen Sondheim production in two weeks.

 

To paraphrase one of Big River's best-known lyrics, I've been waitin' for the men to shine on the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre stage all summer long. In my estimation, and with the exception of a few notable performances - Antwaun Holley in Rent, Michael Oberfield in Show Boat - the male actors haven't really held their own against the female actors this season. That is, until Big River; on Saturday night, every single male performer in Mark Twain's boy-centric tale of Huck Finn offered a noteworthy performance.

Jennifer Noble is in the wrong role in the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's production of Show Boat. That's to say, she's so good in the role of Julie that the part seems woefully small. It is, however, impossible for Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II to write more songs and dialogue for the character, so we must be content to enjoy what we can during Noble's time on stage. And enjoy it I did. Immensely.

Joshua Sohn in Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor DreamcoatIf you can't pull off grandeur in a show that's pretty much known for grandeur, you're much better off shooting for ingenuity and invention. So, for those curious how the modestly scaled Clinton Area Showboat Theatre was going to house the extravagantly scaled Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the happy answer is: with considerable wit and smarts, thank you.

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